BryceEngstrom

It depends on what, exactly, you are trying to accomplish. DWG files do not "convert to Chief". Chief is a 3d modeling program, not just a 2d CAD line editor. You are just importing a DWG files, which is all just electronic lines which come in as the same in Chief. On the off chance you are trying to import a 3d DWG file, that will just come in as on object (symbol). If you are trying to convert a floor plan into a Chief 3d model, importing just the doors, windows, and walls can help by importing that floor plan, locking those layers, and then tracing over them with actual Chief 3d parametric walls, windows and doors. Or, you can just doctor up the 2d CAD lines you have imported by using Chief's 2d CAD tools. Anyway, that's all I can tell you without more specific information about what you are trying to do.

Thank Kevin. This has always bugged me too. While this is a big help, still bugs me how the whole fascia system works. I have never done gable fascia this deep that wasn't at least 1-1/2" thick, so I switched that. Still messy at the corner. Not really how things are typically built.

Ha! Knew I was missing something simple. Thanks guys!

So, attached is a little model, and a millwork panel symbol demonstrating a problem I am having on a larger project trying to do this curved curtain wall. It seems to be faceting every two panels instead of every one panel the way I want it to. Reducing the facet angle is supposed to create more panel facets, so I tried reducing the default faceting angle by half but see no change. No matter what I change that angle to, nothing changes. Ideas? I know there are plenty of other ways to model this, but this method allows me to put the door I am going to need in the curtain wall. Thanks! Curtain Wall Faceting.plan Curtain Wall.calibz

I was a design-build contractor for 14 years before becoming a full time architect, and have been using Chief for almost 20 years now, so I am well aware of Chief's priorities and limitations. I do a lot of custom residences (5 currently on the boards and 2 in construction) and a fair number of commercial projects. That said, I think it's been shown on this forum time and time again that most of the limitations come from the user and not from the software. I wish I had time to do a full comparison presentation, but I don't, and this kind of thing is not something I am asked to do often so I don't have something in the can to show. I would normally just hire a landscape architect to do it.

I don't have any experience with Vectorworks, but all of these illustrations could be approximated pretty close in Chief, and not take a tremendous amount of time. You just have to think about the approach differently. I agree a freehand/lasso tool would be a great addition.

You need to take the 90 degree angles out of the two planes you are trying to join and have a straight line from the eave to the back of where I assume you want your valley between the two roofs. Just rough that in in plan view. Then use the join roof planes tool to create your valley. As far as the gable roof plane on the left just select it and use the Move tool to lower it in the Z plane. But, the fascias won't match top and bottom at the ridge unless they are at the same pitch at that point. I assume you just want them to meet at the top. Or.....post the plan.

You could also create a full height custom panel with the bottom, mid, and/or top rails as you want them, screen infill, and add the door per above. Only glitch is the space above the door if the door is not the full height of the screen panel. You would have to fudge that in with p-solids or moldings.

I have had the same issue. The Mapquest colors don't have enough contrast to be used as-is. Best fix I have found is to bring the image into Photoshop or equivalent and play with brightness, contrast, and even the shadow tools in PS, help to give more contrast before importing into Chief. Once you do it a couple of times, it ends up only taking a minute or two to accomplish.

There is no backwards compatibility with Chief versions.

What do you suppose, then, the door requirement is for? It's called an "egress" door for a reason. Generally that means egress in an emergency. They also require "egress" windows in bedrooms for the same reason. You can also have more than one window in a bedroom and only one of them has to be egress compliant. So, the code is pretty consistent that way. All of them don't need to be egress compliant.

It is the only door required to be 36" (32" clear). "Chances" don't really matter. They just want to make sure that you have at least one way to get out of the house that is this minimum width. Any other exterior doors can be any width you want. Commercial or residential, I think the same basic thought process is at work. In commercial, most of the time, an occupancy of 50 or less also only requires one 36" exit door and it doesn't necessarily have to swing out either.

Typically such residential double doors have an astragal and locking pins top and bottom that have to be disengaged to open the door. Not exactly what you want to be doing when you are trying to escape a fire in a panic. So, I don't think a 60" door meets the intent of the code. Double commercial exit doors would typically not have an astragal and have an entirely different latching mechanism and hinging (as well as panic bars in some instances) so they can be easily pushed open to their full width in an emergency exiting situation.

You can fix it yourself as well. Make a copy of the symbol. The 2D CAD block, when exploded, will contain a polyline that is a countertop hole. Adjust that to the cutout you need, reblock, and apply that CAD block to the copy of the symbol and save.

I couldn't get it to work in Windows 10 at all.

I don't do a lot of this, but even just for customizing general notes, this is a big help since it is such a PITA to do in Chief's primitive text tools. I too am a big fan and long time user of Open Office. Still, adding PDF's to Chief has a way of greatly expanding both the size of the Chief layout file, as well as the PDF output file for printing.

I made this one from something I got off of Sketchup at some point and edited it. It's not that clean for condocs. Has extra lines that need to be deleted via Edit Layout Lines. But, I find it's serviceable. I too miss that little Garage Door Wizard. Glass Garage Door.calibz

For others experiencing this problem, this from tech support- I can see the problem. It looks like if the tool picks up any kind of snap from the building the 3D Center Camera on Point doesn’t work. But if you click the roof anywhere that it doesn’t show a snap indicator it works. I wouldn’t expect the tool to behave this way so I’m going to send the problem over to our development team. I can confirm that this approach works consistently.

Glad to have this confirmed. Will send in a report.

Anybody else having trouble with this feature? It just plain doesn't seem to work most of the time any more. Then, randomly, it does. I find this feature pretty critical when working on a project with a large site, and a structure relatively small in comparison. Seems a number of these kinds of glitches I have these days stems from running 3 large monitors (2 x 30" and 1 x 39"). Just wondering if I'm not alone. Couldn't find anything doing a search here.

But the Software Architects interact with this forum, so it's not so easily separated. And, I can name at least two very specific examples where tech support only offers workarounds- Sidewalks and Custom Window Symbols. These two have never worked they way they should and have been the way they are for years. At least through 3 or 4 versions of the program. I am sure I, and others here, can come up with a number of others. Constant complaining and whining here is one way they get to the top of the priority list, in my opinion and experience, because this forum is semi-public. So, that is, in fact, useful. Having been on this forum for more than 10 years now, I think the Lord of the Flies analogy has some definite validity.

Totally agree. I get really tired of the endless secret handshake workarounds. And it's not just power users, it's tech support too. They are a small company, and like any company small or large, they have to prioritize, I understand. But I think there is a lot of validity to your comments.

Each straight and/or spline driveway's width can be changed manually in their dbx's and can be made to intersect each other cleanly in 3D, although the spline type intersections in 2D leave a lot to be desired. I would say I use both equally.

I turned in a bug report on this and they seemed to be interested in my number of monitors and resolution. Never came back to me with a fix for it. Turn it in.

Good tips, thanks. But, just one more crazy secret handshake to remember. Maybe a "don't heal" checkbox in the wall dbx would be simpler. Being able to dimension newels even better.